washed and combed

I got most of the fiber from merry meadows farm washed and dried. i took a few locks and just combed them out with a flicker brush

staple lenght is between 4.5 and 5 inches, fiber is sooo soft, no scratch effect at all against the skin.

even after washing and brushing the hairs still have a lot of crimp in them, this fiber should spin up into a springy yarn, great for weaving shawls,scarfs and knitted socks.

I love it!! got to get some more!!

I can't wait for the long winter nights now, i'll be spinning, carding, weaving like crazy!!!

I used to be very fond of bright colors (and still am) but now i'm really getting in

to natural colored wool.

More ALPACA...

So i finally got to spin up a small skein of this scrumptious chocolate Alpaca i carded yesterday.

I experimented around a bit with different whorl sizes,speeds and yarn thickness.

I ended up with a very nicely balanced two ply with a wpi of 9 ,worsted. The color is just amazing, a deep ,rich ,dark chocolate.Yummy!

first i was a little disappointed about the feel of the yarn, i imagined it softer.

So i soaked it in warm water for a few minutes(with a little fabric softener) , squeezed it dry in a towel and whacked it against the counter a few times.And Bingo!! now it's the way i thought it would feel: very soft, no 'prickle effect ' on the skin and a nice drape. The yarn is light and fluffy, like a cloud but really strong ,i cant just break a strand between my hands, i have to cut it.

Yes, i think I'll be working a lot with Alpaca in the future, and why not? It is a lot easier to process than most sheep wool, is softer than merino(it has been compared to cashmere) and the price per pound is comparable or less than for most sheep wool ( at least on e-bay). It'll take me a while to process all this fiber, i got about 10 pounds in assorted colors (still looking for a good deal for a white fleece on e-bay).After I'm done washing and carding all of this i will offer some of it in my shop but i will safe a good chunk for myself, i really would like to spin enough up to use for weft for a big size shawl i can wrap myself into on cold winter nights (or days ).Maybe a variegated yarn with all the colors in it.

Next I'll be turning my attention to the fawn colored fleece,stay tuned...

HAHA!!! WE GOT SNOW!!!

I love snow!! Everything looks so clean and pure with a layer of fresh snow on it.

So when they started talking about snow showers at the beginning of last week for the weekend i got all exited (so did hubster, he loves it even more).

As the week progressed it went from hit and miss snow showers with no accumulation to a full blown snow storm ! I kept my tv tuned to the weather channel all day saturday, watching the radar showing the snow getting closer and closer. By 4pm we had a winter weather warning . ALL RIGHT!!

It was supposed to hit our area sometime around midnight.

I didn't want to miss it so i stayed up (hubster went to bed about 10:30, i guess he doesn't love it that much !!)

Well it got 11:00 and 12:00 and 12:30 and the next thing i knew i woke up at 2 am ,looked out the window , NOTHING!!

So i went to bed too.

But when we got up in the morning we saw this:

YIHAWWW!! PLAYTIME!! We took our fourwheeldrive truck and went sight seeing.We got down the mountain without a problem ,on the highway to town we saw several vehicles in the ditch, one of them was even rolled over on its back !

Why can't people slow down??

The ducks weren't impressed at all:

but the stupid chickens did not come out of they're tree until late afternoon :

we had a good time ,it's all gone now and we are looking forward to spring (my most favorite time of the year :)